Artist and guitarist Paul Shapiro founded The Hallucinations in 1964.
While running a frame shop for the Child’s Gallery on Newbury Street he met Stephen Jo Bladd,
who at the time was framing for Boris Mirski’s Bunnell Frame Shop.Steve
bought a set of drums so he could jam with Paul. Steve’s friend Doug
Slade who played guitar then joined. They all met up at a party in
Brookline Village to play unrehearsed. Peter Wolf made
his debut with the band at this party when he sat in to sing and play
harp on Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘One Way Out’. Bass player Joe Clark was
the last to join.

Stephen Jo Bladd made up the name ‘The Hallucinations’.

Drummer Stephen Jo Bladd and Peter Blankfield (Peter Wolf) are both
said to have worked at a framing shop on Newbury Street, Boston, MA,
along with fellow Hallucinations member Doug Slade.

“The Bathroom Tapes” – Four songs produced at
Peter’s apartment in the Queensberry St/Newbury St. section of the Back
Bay of Boston. Urban legend has it that Barry Tashian of The Remains who
lived in the same building was in the room at the time of the
recordings. Called “The Bathroom Tapes” because of the echo utilized off
the walls in the bathroom of Peter Wolf’s apartment. More material was
recorded at an M.I.T. classroom allegedly on Peter Wolf’s reel-to-reel
Webcor Taperecorder. One tune was played on 93.7 WCGY in 1992 when Peter
Wolf appeared on “The Demo That Got The Deal” radio show. ‘Messing With
The Kid’ perhaps? (It is now believed that Pete was talking about how
they got the EMI America deal and a song from the LP ‘Sanctuary’ was
played.

Muddy Waters and his band occasionally lived with Peter Wolf while performing in the New England area.

1970

The self titled debut LP ‘The J.Geils Band’ was recorded in three-and-a-half-days.

1971

The second LP ‘The Morning After’ was recorded in eight days.

1972

The original title for the 1972 LP ‘Live’ Full House was supposed to be ‘Blow Your Face Out’ (The name later given to their 1976 live double LP).

The album cover for ‘Live’ Full House was conceived and designed by Peter Wolf and Stephen Jo Bladd

The mystery behind the ‘winking’ Queen card on the cover of ‘Live’ Full House.
As all of us know a Full House is 3 cards the same suit and 2 cards the
same suit for 5 cards total. The Queen is winking because she is a
“Wild Card” making the Full House of 3 Jacks and 2 Kings.

1973

Etched on the vinyl on side-2 of the Bloodshot LP it says “Nice To See Your Face In The Place”. Not on the UK pressing though.

The painting on the cover of ‘Ladies Invited’ is of Faye Dunaway’s eyes and lips. Painted by artist Antonio in Paris, France.

1974

14 Harmonica overdubs were used on the track ‘Givin’ It All Up’, From the LP ‘Nightmares… And Other Tales From The Vinyl Jungle’.

Peter Wolf married Faye Dunaway on August 9th, 1974.

Faye Dunaway’s favorite Geils song is ‘Musta’ Got Lost’.

1975

Etched on the vinyl on side-2 of the Hotline LP it says “When can we go to Miami”?.

1976

A photo of the ‘real’ funkyjudge Mr George Jessel can be seen on the inside cover of the double LP ‘Blow Your Face Out’.

1977

It took 9 months to record the LP ‘Monkey Island’.

The title track ‘Monkey Island’ is about Atlantic
Records (listen to the lyrics). The band knew that this was their last
LP with them before they even recorded it.

For the ‘Monkey Island’ LP, the band changed their
name to just ‘Geils’. This was to show that they were moving in a new
direction and for the hardcore fans who always referred to the band as
Geils anyway. What they found was that the new name got more press than
the music they were putting out. Both fans, press, and promoters kept
assuming that the name change showed a lack of confidence by the band in
itself, so after a short while they went back to the full J.Geils Band
name.

‘Monkey Island’ was the 12th most played album in the United States during 1977.

1978

During a show at The Warehouse in New Orleans, Peter Wolf got covered in cake during a song

Up to the release of ‘Sanctuary, the stage area the band played on would be covered with a huge blue carpet.
They carried this with them for every show. From ‘Sanctuary onwards, they changed to a red carpet.

To celebrate the release of their first LP with new label
EMI-America. The Geils Band thanked local writers, radio programmers and
record retailers for their support with a four-hour boat ride around
Boston harbor.

The J.Geils Band played Philadelphia on December 31st, 1978. At that
show a marching band played the theme from “Rocky” as Peter rode on
stage in a motorcycle side-car. That was the beginning of the set, and
as the marching band crossed the stage and started to exit, Geils struck
up the opening chords of “Jus Can’t Stop Me”.

1979

Peter Wolf removed his beard in February 1979.

1980

On May 26th 1980 The Geils Band played at the PinkPop festival in
Holland. A couple of days before the band got together in London. Seth,
DK, J. Stephen and Dick were shocked when they saw Peter with a black
eye. Wolf was beaten up by a couple of Irish guys in a London pub
because he talked too much. Quote: Wolf had gone into a
London pub soon after hitting the capital and inadvertently stumbled
onto a scene resembling a saloon free-for-all. Wolf wasn’t directly
involved but the whloe thing spilled out onto the streets and in Wolf’s
own words, “the odds were not as beneficial as one might have liked. I
mean it had nothing to do with me, but well, when push comes to shove, I
don’t like being pushed, so i got in there. When they (United Artists
in London) heard about it they said ‘how could you do this Wolf?’ I said
@#%$ this, I’m not coming to London to sit in some poofy restaurant,
ordering some 1961 Rothschild. I want to be in a pub” When the reporter
visited Wolf at his Montcalm hotel his left arm was in a loose sling, he
was walking with a limp and his left eye was badly damaged.

1981

The band chose ‘Angel In Blue’ as the first single from the ‘Freeze Frame’ album but the record company wanted Centerfold as the first single. The video for ‘Angel In Blue’ was filmed before ‘Centerfold’.

‘Insane, Insane Again’ was the original title for ‘Freeze-Frame’.

1982

The J.Geils Band became the first rock act to completely sell out three nights at The Boston Garden.

Between September 14th 1981 to September 15th 1982, the J.Geils Band
played 149 shows in 115 different cities including 39 shows in 12
different countries.

On 27th July, 1982 at the Carlton Hotel, London, during the European
leg of the Rolling Stones tour when Geils was the main opening act. A
new band was formed called The (Original) Carltones
with Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Wolf, Geils and Justman plus Bobby Keys.
They performed ‘Doo Wap’ to celebrate Mick Jagger’s birthday which was
the day before.

Centerfold was the 4th top selling single in Australia in 1982.

Centerfold was the 8th top selling single Worldwide in 1982.

Freeze-Frame was the 19th top selling LP Worldwide in 1982.

1984

Etched on the vinyl of Peter Wolf’s solo single ‘OO-EE-Diddley-Bop!’, it says “Do the funky walk”.

The original title of Peter Wolf’s LP Lights Out was Dancing In The Dark.

Danny Kleins new band Stoncrazy performed a Christmas party at Aerosmith’s nightclub, Mama Kin, taped for television in December of 1998.

1999

Rehearsals for the 99 Reunion Tour were held in a warehouse on the Somerville/Charlestown line, Charlestown, MA.

The first songs that the band rehearsed for the 99 Reunion Tour were
‘Be Careful’ by Chicago Bluesman John Brim and is on the Hotline Album.
Then came 2 Little Walter songs and then came the following: ‘First I
Look At The Purse’, ‘Lookin’ For A Love’, ‘Sanctuary’, ‘Love Stinks’ and
lastly ‘Musta’ Got Lost’.

Friday May 21, 1999. The J.Geils Band appear on CBS’s ‘Late Show
with David Letterman’. They perform ‘Looking For A Love’ &
‘Centerfold’ (most of Centerfold is performed during the last break).

On the Today Show video in 1999 for the “Reunion Tour”, Peter,
during the performance goes to the side of the stage and kisses a bald
headed man on the top of his head. It is in fact, the one and only Mr.
Jim Donnelly (Bluestime manager and the original road manager of The
J.Geils Band) minus the hair but sporting a beard, however he lost the
beard during the “Reunion Tour”.

When asked “Why after 17 yrs. is the J. Geils Band getting back
together for a reunion tour? “, Wolf replied “It’s Shinola !!! (American
Shoe Polish) Well, it was a big battle between Shinola and Yoo-Hoo
Soda…..No actually we have no corporate sponsor.”

When asked “Who is the corporate sponsor for the Bands reunion Tour?
“, Wolf replied “In 72 we did this deal with The Mafia. It’s payback
time, and there’s gonna be broken legs if we don’t.”